“Where the hell do you think you’re going?”

Pip screamed and held his left cheek.

“Answer me!” Reed took a step toward Pip and raised his hand.

Pip rolled to his side and buried his face in his arms.

“Where were you going?”

“You killed Spud!” Pip yelled between sobs.

Reed picked Pip up by the collar of his coat, grabbed his stocking cap off the ground, and marched him back to the rapids, the boy struggling to break free from Reed’s grip. When they got back to the rapids, he threw Pip to the ground, grabbed his face, and forced the boy to look at him. Then in a voice loud and clear, he yelled, “Spud killed your mother. Don’t you know that?”

Pip stopped struggling. He stopped crying. He sat on the ground as though he had gone numb. “That’s right,” Reed said. “That day he came to your house… he killed your mom. That’s why I had to do what I did.”

He waited for Pip to say something—to react in any way—but the boy just looked at Reed with a blank expression. “I found out what happened and I did what a man has to do. You understand?”

Pip stared up at his father but still said nothing.

The cold ground sent shards of pain spiking up through the bottoms of Reed’s feet, but he tried to sound calm. “It’s just you and me now. We’re a team—father and son. We gotta get across that river—and we have to hurry. Stand up.”

Pip didn’t move. He didn’t even seem to blink. It was as though he had gone catatonic.

Reed lifted him off the ground and stood him up. Then, with his clothes in his hands, he hefted Pip onto his shoulders and waded back across the river.

On the other side, Reed scanned the Minnesota shoreline as he dressed. He had to get his head back in the game. If Lyle was still following them, he wouldn’t be far behind. Lyle had some skill as a hunter, but Reed felt up to the challenge. The real question was, who was that second man?

If Lyle didn’t take the bait of Loon Falls, there would have to be a battle, and it would be two against one. He needed to figure out a way to even the odds. He needed to set up an ambush.

He took in the layout of the rapids and the land around it. His pursuers would have to cross here. They would be vulnerable in the water and have their backs to the river once they crossed, cutting off any retreat. Behind him, Reed had a hillside full of trees for cover.

He was in a perfect place to bring this whole mess to an end.

CHAPTER 65

Max had flipped through his options as he retrieved his backpack. He could hit the SOS button, wait for rescuers to show up, maybe get a manhunt started, but that would take several hours, and by then Lyle and Reed and Pip would have disappeared into Canada. He dismissed the idea. He couldn’t leave Lyle alone in the Boundary Waters with Reed. The passion that filled Lyle’s head could make him careless, get him killed. He couldn’t let Lyle go after Reed alone.